The SiteRoot team6 min read
You have picked a name. You type it into a registrar's search box and it comes back at A$4.95 for the first year, with a countdown timer beside it. Two clicks later the cart says A$89.40 and there are six things in it you did not ask for.
So here is what a domain name actually costs in Australia, and what the rest of that cart is.
The short answer, in numbers
At ordinary prices, not first year specials:
- A .com.au is roughly A$10 to A$30 a year, depending on which registrar you buy from.
- A shorter .au name, available since 2022, sits in much the same range and is often a little less.
- A .com is usually about A$15 to A$25 a year.
- A .net.au or .org.au costs about the same as a .com.au.
Those are typical figures and they move, so treat them as the shape of the market rather than a quote. The number that matters is not in that list anyway. It is the renewal price, because that is the one you pay every year for as long as you are in business.
Why the first year price is not the price
Cheap first years are the entire business model of the discount registrars. A$4.95 for year one, then A$29.95 every year after, with the second number in smaller type or on a different page.
There is nothing dishonest about it as long as you look. Before you buy, find the renewal price for the exact name and term you are buying, and compare registrars on that number. Saving five dollars in year one and paying fifteen more every year after is not a saving.
Two other things to check while you are in there.
- Is GST included in the price on the page? Registrars selling to businesses often quote without it, so A$27.27 on screen is A$30 out of your account.
- Is automatic renewal switched on, and is the card behind it one that has not expired? A domain that lapses because a card expired is the most avoidable way there is to take your own website off the internet.
.com.au, .au or .com?
For an Australian business selling to Australians, .com.au is still the default and the one to get first. It tells a stranger where you are, which is most of what a local customer wants to know before they ring.
The shorter .au names have been available since 2022 and plenty of businesses hold one now. Worth having if your name is free and you like the look of it. Not worth agonising over, and not a reason to delay anything.
A .com is worth buying if you can get your exact name cheaply, mostly so nobody else has it. You do not have to point it anywhere.
What you do not need is eight of them. A row of .biz, .net, .info and .online registrations defends against a problem almost no small business has, and every one of them renews forever.
You need an ABN, and you need it first
A .com.au is not open to anyone who wants one. It needs an Australian presence behind it, which in practice means an ABN, an ACN or a registered business name, and the name you register has to relate to that entity rather than being whatever you fancy.
Those rules are set by auDA, which administers .au, and your registrar checks them at the checkout. You cannot buy the address first and sort the business out afterwards, which catches people who only wanted the name held while they thought about it.
If you are not registered yet, the order is: ABN first, then a business name if you are trading as something other than your own name, then the domain.
A domain is licensed, not bought
That sounds like a technicality. It is not.
You hold a .au name for a term, usually one to five years, and then you renew it. You do not own it the way you own your van. If the licence lapses the name goes back into the pool, and if it is any good somebody else will take it.
This matters for one very practical reason. The contact address on the licence has to be an inbox somebody reads, because that is where the renewal notice goes. If your domain was registered by a web designer you stopped working with in 2023, using their email address, the notice goes to them, and the first you hear about it is your site going dark.
The add ons in that cart, one by one
Email hosting. A real product and often worth buying, but it is a separate purchase from the domain. Decide it on its own merits rather than because it arrived pre ticked.
Privacy or ID protection. Ask exactly what it hides before paying for it. For .au names the administrator already restricts what of your contact detail gets published, so this is usually not the purchase it is on a .com.
A website builder or a hosting trial. You may well want one. You do not want it bundled into a domain purchase that renews annually while you are not reading.
Bundles with names like premium routing, malware scanning or an SEO pack. For a five page site for a local business, no.
The one thing worth leaving switched on is automatic renewal.
Whose name should be on it
Yours. Your business's. Not your designer's, not your nephew's, not an agency's account with your name in the notes field.
This is the most expensive small mistake in this entire post. When the domain sits in someone else's account, your address is not actually yours. Getting it back is a polite email, then a less polite email, then a conversation about an unpaid invoice from 2024, and at worst a formal complaint process running while your website sits at an address you cannot control.
Ask anyone building you a site the direct question: is the domain registered in my business's name, in an account I can log into, with my email address on it? If the answer contains a "but", sort that out before anything else gets built.
Moving one later
Moving a .au name between registrars is usually straightforward and usually free, apart from any renewal it triggers. You ask your current registrar for the authorisation code, hand it to the new one, and confirm from the email address on the licence.
Which lands back in the same place. Every recovery path you have runs through that email address.
Where SiteRoot sits
We do not sell domains, on purpose.
Your site can use a domain you already own, or a new one you buy yourself while we walk you through pointing it at your site. The registration stays in your name, at a registrar you chose, and the A$10 to A$30 a year goes to them rather than to us. If you ever stop paying us, you keep your address and can point it anywhere you like.
The site itself is A$16.50 a month including GST (A$15 plus GST), with hosting, the padlock certificate and its renewals inside that price. 14 days free, then A$16.50/month (A$15 + GST). Card asked for during your 14 days, one free trial per customer, cancel anytime.
Four minutes of admin, today
- Look up your own domain's renewal date and its renewal price.
- Check that the email address on the licence is one you actually read.
- Check that automatic renewal is on and the card behind it is current.
- Confirm the registration is in your business's name and that you can log in.
Not one item on that list is interesting. All four are the reason a working website vanishes one Tuesday for no visible reason.
